Help making veggie lo mein, tried earlier but was WAY too salty...Any ideas on what I should have done?

Question

I followed Rachel Ray's recipe on foodnetwork.com.

It was too salty, obviously too much soy sauce I'm thinking.

I tried it at Yeung's Lotus Express in the mall and it's so good, not too salty, but more oily (maybe sesame or peanut?) Any ideas on this? Thanks so much! :O)

** Any ideas how to make it a little oiler and sweeter? That won't be too much oil/sweet?

Answer 1

I looked at Ray's recipe for No Pain Lo Mein.
Her recipe calls for a 1/2 cup of tamari soy sauce.
That's way too much. That's probably half of bottle of soy sauce that you see on the table in a Chinese restaurant. Wow! She's crazy!

Less oily... Cut back on the toasted sesame seed oil. She calls for 1 tablespoon. You can probably get buy with 1 teaspoon.

More sweeter... add 1 teaspoon of sugar. Not too much.

Edit... I thought you wanted less oil. More oily, I suggest that you take the cooked noodles and drain them well. Pan-fry the noodles first in 1 to 2 tablespoons of oil, plus 1 teaspoon of sesame seed oil. You want a little crispiness. Afterwards, take the noodles out and set aside. Now follow the recipe as directed, except use less soy sauce. You can add more at the table if it so pleases you.

Answer 2

Soy sauce is the downfall of every beginner at Asian cookery. You can do much better without it entirely. Toasted sesame oil ( the flavoring variety) or Chinese Peanut Oil ( also a flavoring oil--NOT bland american peanut oil, like Hollywood, which has no flavor.) Use one of those and the dish will come together. NEVER follow a recipe's recommendation on quantity of salt. Do that to taste. But do add some salt--preferably seal salt. Lo mein can absorb a vast quantity of vegetables.

Answer 3

Look for a low salt soy sauce.
The problem is some are good and some are not.

Answer 4

Soy sauce IS very salty so go easy on it.

Answer 5

If you added salt as you were cooking, and then added soy, that will be part of your problem.
Soy, oyster, fish and many Asian sauces are very salt, and some may contain MSG.